Disrupt the Inauguration and more….

FYI, folks: A friend forwarded me the link to a website that encourages people to “take to the streets and protest, blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and make more noise and good trouble than the establishment can bear.” And, the website continues, if you can’t make it to DC, just pitch in around the corner.

I don’t know how far calls for such action will go but if they become destructive, like the 1999 “Battle for Seattle” WTO protests several years ago, I think they’ll make it tougher to move the political needle towards a more liberal future. I’d be more impressed if the energy went towards registering voters in red or purple districts with an eye towards future elections. Still, there is a lot of valid concern that powerful government forces will need an aggressive counterbalance if we’re not going to jettison many of the things that make us proud to be American and figuring out the right spot to say “This is not okay” is going to be different for everyone who disagrees with Trump’s policies.

It will be interesting, and probably challenging, to see how such calls for action play out nationally, regionally and locally as we all try to figure out what a Trump Administration means to the things we believe in, how far we might go in challenging Federal actions and what the role of local government is in maintaining order in a world where people are actively trying to organize disruptive events to protest parts of government they are troubled by. In many ways, this sort of action is as old, or older, than our country itself but having it play out around the corner from you or having it interfere with your getting to your doctor’s appointment can put such actions in a different light. If things get “too” disruptive, riot police and other security forces eventually move in to restore order and that can lead to its own set of problems. If you have thoughts, feel free to share them with me.

2 Responses to “Disrupt the Inauguration and more….”

Yeah, Identity Politics is an issue. So is the increasing divide between opportunity and lack thereof, something I think a lot of urban liberals do not understand as it applies to formerly dynamic industrial areas outside current urban cores. No easy answers, but disrupting (as opposed to protesting or rallying against) the inauguration of what seems to have been a fairly elected President is not moving the needle in the right direction. It’ll drive many people away from liberal causes and make, for example, challenging future deportation attempts that much tougher from a national policy perspective.

I fear these largely symbolic acts will only aggravate the disease of identity politics, which accounted substantially for Trump’s victory. I would recommend the writings and talks of Professor Jonathan Haidt of NYU on this subject.